WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has called on President Donald Trump to shrink or otherwise weaken protections for 10 national monuments, according to a final report made public Tuesday. The release of the document, a version of which was leaked to the media in September, comes a day after Trump and Zinke traveled to Utah to announce an unprecedented dismantling of two of the state’s national monuments: Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. In addition to the Utah sites, Zinke has recommended Trump shrink the boundaries of two land monuments, Nevada’s Gold Butte and Cascade-Siskiyou in Oregon and California, as well as consider reducing the size of a pair of marine national monuments, Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll. The report also calls for sweeping changes in how these protected sites are managed, including allowing for drilling, mining, grazing, logging and commercial fishing. In a release announcing the report, Zinke said that as part of his review he met with a range of people from across the country and from all sides of the issue.

Source: Huffington Post December 05, 2017 20:03 UTC